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RiskFirst appoints new leadership team as part of renewed growth initiative

02 March 2016

The new leadership team, to be led by new CEO Matthew Seymour, brings a wealth of experience from the financial services, actuarial and technology arenas. The team will be responsible for setting the company’s future strategic direction as it seeks to maintain the leading position of risk management platform PFaroe in the UK and US pensions markets, as well as drive growth into new markets.

RiskFirst, creators of the defined benefit (DB) pension industry’s leading risk management platform PFaroe, has appointed a new leadership team in order to drive further growth in core and prospective markets.

Matthew Seymour has been appointed to the newly-established role of Chief Executive Officer and will lead the senior leadership team, comprising Matthew Bale, Chief Strategy Officer, Darren Best, Chief Financial Officer, Nick Francis, Chief Technology Officer, and Rob Stuart, General Counsel.

Seymour comments: “Collectively, our senior management team brings a wealth of experience and a strong track record from the financial services, technology and actuarial worlds, which puts us in a unique position to drive the business forward – growing within our core DB market, and outside of it.”

Seymour adds: “Our approach has always been to place our clients' needs at the heart of everything we do, and that will not change. We will continue to apply the latest advances in technology to meet these evolving needs. In addition, we are increasing our focus on identifying opportunities and providing solutions to similar challenges faced by other related industries.”

Seymour joined RiskFirst in 2009 and most recently held the position of Commercial Director. He has 17 years’ experience in the technology industry, 14 years specifically in Financial Technology (FinTech). Prior to joining RiskFirst, he was co-owner and Chief Technology Officer of FundWorks, a global FinTech serving the Investment Management industry.

Matthew Bale joined RiskFirst in 2009. Prior to RiskFirst, Bale worked across both the actuarial and investment arenas, most recently in Citi’s Insurance and Pensions Structured Solutions Group. His experience has guided the evolution of PFaroe into both the consulting and asset management industries.

Prior to joining RiskFirst in 2008, Darren Best worked as a qualified actuary, advising on pension fund design, management and reporting, both in the UK and US.

Nick Francis moved to RiskFirst in 2009, having spent 17 years as Technical Director of his own technology consultancy, where he ran large projects for large blue-chip companies throughout the UK and Europe.

Rob Stuart joined RiskFirst in 2009. Prior to RiskFirst Stuart was an in-house lawyer for a London-based hedge fund and general counsel for a multinational insurance and reinsurance company.

RiskFirst is the market-leader in the UK and US. It has a joint venture with PwC, called Skyval, and clients including Callan Associates, Cambridge Associates, Capita, John Hancock, JLT, Manulife Asset Management, NEPC, Northern Trust, Punter Southall, Rocaton, Transamerica and Xafinity. Over 1,200 pension plans and $750 billion of pension liabilities are now modelled on RiskFirst’s technology.